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Abstract

The South African taxi industry is a fast-growing industry and greatly contributes to the GDP
growth of the country. While it also contributes to the decrease of unemployment problem in the
country, it does very little to compensate its employees, the taxi drivers. A large body of research
has been done on the taxi industry regarding its growth and future development such as
recapitalization, and SANTACOs initiatives at introducing a much affordable Airline. However,
little research has been done concerning the financial challenges facing taxi drivers in South
Africa, especially in Umbumbulu, South of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. This is the gap this
dissertation is attempting to fill in. The purpose of this dissertation is to enhance understanding
of how taxi drivers fare in this fast growing informal economy, namely, the taxi industry, by
investigating their financial management practices. Through the utilization of, questionnaires, indepth
interviews and ethnographic approach, a model will be developed to describe, firstly, how
financial management practices are carried out to facilitate the fulfillment of specific life goals of
these taxi drivers and secondly, discuss how these practices translate to financial management.
For the purpose of this study a questionnaire was used to investigate the financial management
practices of taxi drivers in Umbumbulu. 27 owners and drivers were interviewed during their
loading intervals when they were not busy.
The study revealed that the Umbumbulu Taxi Rank drivers face huge financial difficulties which
are due to different reasons. The challenges have been found to not only affect them but also
their families. The conclusion drawn from the results was that even though taxi drivers face these
problems they are able to deal with them through different strategies, such as, saving money
through Stokvel and savings accounts.

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